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A murder inside the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years -- which could shake the foundations of Christianity.
Tom Hanks: Dr. Robert Langdon
A curator is murdered in Paris's revered Louvre Museum. The French police, lead by Leutenant Bezu Fache(Jean Reno) call on the expertise of Professor Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), an expert in Pagan Symbols, when mysterious, blood-drenched patterns are found all over the body. However, Fache's suspicions of Robert have already been aroused and, unknown to the professor, he's slipped a tracking device on him. Then Agent Nevu(Audrey Tautou) intervenes, springs him from the museum and begins a wild chase around Paris full of wild twists and turns. Robert learns the curator was Nevu's grand-father and was involved with a religious sect called The Priory of Sion. It all mounts up to a monk, Silas (Paul Bettany) sent by the religious sect of Opus Dei and the ultimate re-writing of history.
There's nothing like controversy to get something talked about, and it seems the best results are when that controversy involves religion. Dan Brown's much talked about novel The Da Vinci Code set off much consternation by basically re-writing the bible- and now that controversy has been adapted to the big screen.
The book suffered from badly constructed dialogue but still managed to be a relentless, addictive, page turner that fired at you with interesting fact after interesting fact and kept you on the edge of your tether till the climactic finale. The film adaptation, then, is as good as can be expected. It's well cast. Tom Hanks is just the kind of lead you need for this kind of thing, but he's not at his best here. Jean Reno also has appeal as Captain Fache, Tautou and Bettany are also very engaging in support but it's Ian McKellen who steals the show here as eccentric old grail enthusiast Sir Leigh Teabing, delivering the most spirited and compelling performance. Also, lets not forget talented director, Ron Howard. Although if you've read the book, the film offers little in the way of it's own variation upon the story's lucrative measures.
''Why is it divine or human? Can't human be divine?''
Some of the facts are unnecessarily distorted like Jacque Suniere was not really Sophie's Grand-father, but in fact he is shown to be her real Grand-father in the novel. She even has a brother that she is re-united with in the end. Most importantly, the reason, a man would entrust the most powerful secret in history of mankind to a man he has never met before is once again given a sexist explanation in the movie. Sophie is too clueless and too helpless to resolve the mystery on her own so the wise Grandfather tells her to find her Knight in shining armour, Robert Langdon. To an extent that maybe the case, however, even more important reason is that Robert Langdon had written a manuscript that his publisher had sent to Jacque Suniere to get his praise for the book and in that he unknowingly spells out the location of the Grail itself.
Aside from altering the underlying main theme of the Novel, the main focus of the 'Knights Templars' and 'Priory of Sion',proves to be an interesting range of vocal points and analogies.
Usually one finds that novel was way better than the film, but here the difference is debatable. You could for all practical purposes either watch this or read the Novel, missing certain details, from what I stated in the above points.
Upon a closing note, the score by Hans Zimmer and the closing majesty regarding that final piece; Chevaliers de Sangreal deserves a special five star honour. The beauty of The Da Vinci Code rests with it's hidden truths and ultimately with it's imaginative story which Ron Howard captures more or less despite what critics say.
''The holy grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits. The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates. Adorned in masters' loving art, she lies. She rests at last beneath the starry skys.''
8/10
